Dozens of students were abducted by gunmen from a school in northern Nigeria today, residents and parents of the missing children said, in what may be the largest school abduction since 2021.

Police in Kaduna State have not commented on the abductions which allegedly took place shortly after the morning assembly of students at a school in Kuriga town. The number of hostages remains unclear.

“As we speak, people are writing the names of their children who went to school today and didn’t come back. Then we will know the exact number” of the missing, said Salisu Ahmed Kuriga, whose three younger siblings are missing.

Some parents said that when the gunmen arrived at the school, they started shooting sporadically. They then took dozens of students with them and disappeared into the jungle.

Elementary and high school students attend this school.

“We don’t know what to do, we are waiting to see what God will do. They are the only children I have on Earth,” said Fatima Usman, whose two children have been kidnapped.

Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, said local security guards tried to push back the gunmen but were overpowered. “Seventeen of the kidnapped students are my children. I feel sad that the government has completely abandoned us in this area,” Abdullahi added.

Kidnappings for ransom by gunmen have become endemic in northern Nigeria. Because of this situation, thousands of children do not attend school. The last major student abduction occurred in June 2021, when gunmen abducted 80 children from a school in north-western Nigeria’s Kebbi State.